Update, September 19: Datamining has revealed that Ana is set to release on September 26, with Junkrat to follow October 27.
Reddit user Spazzo965 has done some Heroes of the Storm datamining to figure out when the next batch of updates will be coming. Ana and the next major patch will be coming on September 26. Junkrat is set to follow just in time for Halloween, on October 27.
Heroes of the Storm’s Hanamura map rework is still on the way too.
The adorably devilish D.Va the Destroyer skin will be hitting on October 3. There’s a lovely splash screen to go with it, and you can actually try the skin out now in the PTR by typing “battlenet://heroes/skin/98/DVatheDestroyer” into the chat.
Other data revealed that voice chat should also be in the game relatively soon. Both Ana and Chen look to be joining the selection of announcers, as well.
Details are also coming out on what to expect from the balance changes coming in the patch alongside Ana, but that info is still being sorted through. You can keep up on those details here.
Update:A hero spotlight is now available for Ana, showing off her abilities and talents.
The official Heroes of the Storm Ana spotlight video is now out, and embedded above. There’s a breakdown of what’s inside below, plus numbers for all of Ana’s abilities and talents.
Here’s her abilities:
- Trait
- Shrike
- Basic attacks apply a Dose to non-Structure enemies, dealing an additional 40 damage over 5 seconds, and stacking up to 5 times.
- Has additional attack range, similar to Raynor and Nova.
- Basic Abilities
- Healing Dart (Q)
- Fire a dart which heals the first allied Hero hit for 250 Health. Has range roughly the same as upgraded Jaina
- Cost: 15 mana
- Charges: 1 (increased by talents)
- Cooldown: 2 secs
- Biotic Grenade (W)
- Toss a Grenade at the target area. Allied Heroes hit are healed for 175 Health and receive 25% increased healing for 3 seconds. Enemies hit take 60 damage and receive 100% less healing for 2 seconds.
- Has significant travel time if thrown a decent distance. Medium range, tighter AOE, roughly equal to a Jaina Blizzard.
- This started on a lower cooldown but proved to be “too strong an effect” to be “thrown out willy-nilly.” Six weeks of play testing went into that decision.
- Cost: 50
- Cooldown: 16
- Sleep Dart (E)
- Fire a dart that Sleeps the first enemy Hero hit, Stunning them for 3 seconds. Sleep’s effects end instantly if the target takes damage after the first 0.5 seconds. Cannot be used on Vehicles.
- Damage from Lunara’s trait or Ana’s trait, as well as other DOTs, donot wake up sleeping heroes.
- Cost: 50
- Cooldown: 14
- Heroic Abilities
- Nano Boost (R1)
- Instantly boost an allied Hero, restoring 200 Mana. For the next 8 seconds, they gain 30% Spell Power and their Basic Ability cooldowns recharge 150% faster. Cannot be used on Ana.
- “Tanks make for fantastic targets” says Kent-Erik Hagman, hero designer. The cooldown reduction allows them to use their CC abilities much more regularly.
- Cost: 75
- Cooldown: 60
- Eye of Horus (R2)
- Assume a sniping position, gaining the ability to fire up to 8 specialized rounds with unlimited range. Rounds hit the first allied or enemy Hero or enemy Structure in their path. Allies are healed for 300 and enemies are damaged for 175. Deals 50% less damage to Structures. Ana is unable to move while Eye of Horus is active.
- This was actually Blizzard’s first choice for Ana’s non-Overwatch ultimate. “The ability we have today is what went in, but what we iterated on the most was the number of shots, the cadence of shots. When it initially went in it was three bullets, didn’t feel like you were actually in a sniper nest. We upped it to five, wasn’t enough, upped it to seven, not quite there – we went to eight and that was it. There were one or two playtests where you could just rifle them all off and it felt very punishing, removed a lot of the counter-play – so we put a one-second cooldown between each shot.”
- The last thing added was the structure rule, mostly to stop Ana being a hard Abathur counter in the worst way.
- Cost: 75
- Cooldown: 60
And heres a look at her talents:
- Level 1
- [W] Grenade Calibration
- Quest: Hit enemy Heroes with Biotic Grenade. Reward: After hitting 10 Heroes, Biotic Grenade does 75% more damage per allied and enemy Hero hit.
- Reward: After hitting 20 Heroes, Biotic Grenade’s duration on allies is increased from 3 seconds to 12 seconds, and its healing radius is increased by 100%.
- [E] Piercing Darts
- Quest: Hit Heroes with Sleep Dart.
- Reward: After hitting 10 Heroes, Sleep Dart now hits 2 Heroes and its range is increased by 50%.
- Reward: After hitting 20 Heroes, Healing Dart now hits 2 Heroes and its range is increased by 50%.
- [Q] Detachable Box Magazine
- Quest: Stack 5 Doses on an enemy Hero.
- Reward: After reaching maximum Dosage 5 times, Doses deal 50% increase damage to enemies with 5 Doses.
- Reward: After reaching maximum Dosage 15 times, unlock the Active Reload Ability, which can be activated to instantly gain 3 charges of Healing Dart.
- Level 4
- [W] Air Strike – Activate to use Biotic Grenade with a 275% increased range, but Grenades thrown this way take 4 seconds to land.
- Passive: Reduce Biotic Grenade cooldown by 4 seconds.
- Overdose-Hitting enemies with Sleep Dart and Biotic Grenade applies 2 Doses.
- [Active] Aim Down Sights – Shrike can be activated to increase vision radius by 112.5% and Basic Attack range by 2 but reduce Movement Speed by 20%. Lasts until canceled.
- Level 7
- [E] Temporary Blindness-After Sleep Dart’s effects wear off, targets are Blinded for 2 seconds.
- [Passive] Mind-Numbing Agent-Every Dose a Hero has reduces their Spell Power by 15%.
- [Active] Debilitating Dart-Activate to fire a dart which reduces the damage dealt by the first enemy Hero it hits by 50% for 4 seconds.
- Level 13
- [Q] Speed Serum-Healing Dart grants 25% Movement Speed to affected Heroes for 2 seconds.
- [Q] Purifying Darts -Healing Dart removes Roots and Slows from the target, and heals for 20% more when doing so.
- [Q] Smelling Salts -Healing Dart removes Stuns from the target, and grants them 50 Armor for 2 seconds when doing so.
- Level 16
- [Q] Sharpshooter – Healing Dart’s healing is increased by 5% each time it heals a Hero, up to 50%. This bonus is reset if Healing Dart fails to hit a Hero.
- [Q] Concentrated Doses – Increase Healing Dart’s healing by 10% for each Dose active on enemy Heroes.
- [W] Arcane Echoes – Biotic Grenade heals for 30% more per allied and enemy Hero hit.
- Level 20
- [R1] Nano Infusion -Allies affected by Nano Boost heal for 50% of Spell Damage dealt.
- [R2] Ballistic Advantage – Eye of Horus rounds explodes upon impact, healing nearby allies for 300 and dealing 150 damage to nearby enemy Heroes.
- [Trait] Somnolent Doses -Upon stacking 5 Doses, Heroes are Slept for 2 seconds.
- [Passive] Dynamic Shooting -Basic Attacks increase Attack Speed by 10% for 4 seconds, up to 100%.
- [Active] Custom Optics -Increase the Aim Down Sights Basic Attack range bonus from 2 to 4.
Blizzard have “no idea” what kind of impact she’ll have on the meta. “When you see a 100% healing debuff that’s definitely a wake-up moment, that seems pretty strong. Certainly if you happen to land it right as Ancestral Healing has come on it just completely negates it. We’re curious to see what our competitive players can do with her – she’s such a variable healer based on the skill of the player that we’re really excited to see what people can do with her.”
The PTR containing Ana is expect to go up later today, and you can see the full patch notes here. They include large changes to Nova, Kharazim, Rehgar and Johanna as well as the new map, Volskaya Foundry.
Update September 18, 2017:a new video showcases the new Overwatch-themed cosmetics coming soon to Heroes of the Storm.
Support sniper Ana takes centre stage, but there’s also a look at dozens of skins for other heroes, including D.Va’s Destroyer skin – a demonic new style that’s nothing like any of her Overwatch outfits.
Some non-Overwatch heroes get a bit of love: Illidan’s Nightmare mount is shown, and World of Warcraft’s Varian gets a new ‘Commandant’ skin.
You can check out the video above, or read on for the original announcement last week, which included a video and a look at the new Overwatch-themed map, Volskaya Foundry.
Original story September 15, 2017:Overwatch is invading Heroes of the Storm once again. This time, two new heroes are on the way along with the new map,Volskaya Foundry. Ana will bring her ranged support playstyle to the nexus, while Junkrat is as excited as ever to blow people up. Forever.
Abilities and talents are still under wraps for now, but we’d recommend taking a look at their respective Overwatch implementations for possible hints. Healing and support for Ana, then, while Junkrat has damage and explosions aplenty. Remember, too, that D.Va’s HotS version was quite different from her Overwatch iteration, at least outside of the basics, so similar could happen here.
Arriving in the same patch – which is currently undated but we expect it soon, likely hitting PTR as early as next week – are a batch of new skins. D.Va’s gone all Deathwing, Varian’s taking a liking to Overwatch’s art style, and Ana will be bringing her Shrike costume over.
Commandant Varian
Destroyer D.Va
Shrike Ana
Wouldn’t be a Heroes of the Storm patch without mounts:
Celestial Raptor
Invisible Horse
If previous reveals are anything to go by, we’ll get Ana, the map, and so on in the next patch, then Junkrat “on [her] tail” as hero designer Kent Erik-Hagman put it. Further details on that are doubtlessly on the way.